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DANA WENT TO THE NED’S Antique store that still had yellow caution tape around some sections. Clear plastic covered most of the windows. She’d just paid a quick visit to Sammy, which by the way, wasn’t his real name. Finally, the pieces of the puzzle came together.
“Hello,” she called out. She knew she’d find Tiffany working there helping to salvage stuff and do an inventory for the insurance company.
“Hi,” Tiffany said, picking up small antiques and collectibles while ticking a box on a sheet of paper on the counter for each item. She looked nervous to see Dana.
“Um...how are you guys doing?” Dana said casually, trying to hide the heavy pounding of her heartbeat and the uncomfortable butterflies in her stomach. Goodness, this had better not backfire on her. How on earth was she going to get a confession.
“As you can see we’re kind of busy here still doing inventory to give to the insurance company.” Tiffany gave Dana a suspicious look then went back to work.
“Of course you are. If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”
She said nothing and continued taking inventory, while standing behind the counter.
“You know something Tiffany,” Dana cleared her throat. “I thought it was very odd that day when you came into the Cozy Cupcakes Café the morning after the...accident.”
Tiffany looked up puzzled. “Excuse me?”
“You and Ned came into the café the morning after the incident and stayed a while.”
“So?”
“Well, first you forgot to mention to the cops that you were there between eight and ten in the morning when Ned was arrested. Then a couple days later, after I came forth with the truth, you told the police that you were both there together for your alibi but it isn’t true. You were gone for a long period of time.”
“So what? Look, just what are you getting at, Miss Busy-body-who-loves- to-make-up-stories-and-solve riddles?”
Okay, that was quite a statement.
“You weren’t speaking with your therapist that long. You were at the scene of the crime. You could be charged with accessory to murder,” Dana said.
Just then Ned hobbled out from behind the back. “No, she wasn’t, Dana.”
“Ned?” Tiffany said.
“Tiffany, you go to the back and let me finish up here.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Tiffany eyed Dana with contempt before walking away to leave them alone in the ruined store.
“What is this about, Dana? Why are you here harassing my assistant? She was nowhere near the crime.”
“That’s right. You were at the scene of the crime though, weren’t you?”
“What on earth are you babbling about?”
“Common motives for murder is greed, money, power, revenge, fear...”
“What?” Ned stood tall with his cane in one hand.
“Why did you kill Chuck?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. The police let me go, remember? Now, go away. Shoo!”
“No, I’m so sorry Ned. Not this time. I believed in you. You were one of Grandma Rae’s acquaintances.”
Ned looked at her with sorrow in his eyes. “Yes, she was a lovely woman.”
“And she was honorable. And believed in doing the right thing, Ned. Just like I thought you were.”
He sighed deeply. “I still don’t know what you’re on about.”
“I did some research online.”
“You did some what? Where?”
“On the internet.”
“Oh, drats. That darn thing again.”
“You feared losing a hundred year old family business. You said so yourself. And who could blame you? But Ned, you went about trying to save it the wrong way.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do, Ned. I remembered when the police made your arrest, you looked so rumpled. Your jacket wasn’t neat on you. I wondered if you’d put up a struggle? But that wasn’t the case. It dawned on me much later that your button was missing. Your blue button on your new blue blazer.”
His eyes widened.
“You also told the police you didn’t know Chuck,” Dana continued. “But that was a lie. There are some old pictures of you two. You both go way back. In fact, he made a life of doing scams. Like insurance scams.”
“Insurance scams?”
“I just spoke to this guy who was suspiciously hanging out around your store the day of the accident and before. He went by the undercover name Sammy. And it was a good thing I spoke to him. I thought he was some sort of hoodlum but as it turns out he was an undercover insurance fraud investigator who’d been on to what you were planning when he’d heard you’d run into some trouble and had asked about insurance payouts—but he never had enough evidence to do anything—until I contacted him.”
Ned’s eyes opened wide. He glanced around as if to see if Tiffany was still in the back.
“Go on,” he said cautiously.
Dana swallowed hard. “You needed the money badly to save the store so I believe you conspired with Chuck to stage the accident so that it would make the news and the insurance company would not question it.”
His eyes grew wide like saucers and looked as if they were about to bulge out of his head.
“What? That darn fool!” Ned shook his cane. “I told him he’d get twenty percent of the money. That was enough for that broke idiot since his wife cut off his allowance. But no, he wanted more than half. There was no way I could do that?”
“So you killed him.”
“No. Well, yes and no. I didn’t mean to. He came back to the store and I told him he shouldn’t have come there because people could see us talking and that would spoil everything. Then he just laughed at me and said he didn’t care. He said he was taking eighty percent and giving me twenty when the huge payout came. That just made my blood boiled. He said he could prove I was behind it and I’d go to jail with him if I didn’t go along. I said I wouldn’t. So he pushed me around and I fell on the floor. I hit him with whatever was close to me.”
“The iron fire poker. That explains why the blow was going upward to the forehead and not from behind.”
“Yes. He collapsed. I didn’t realize I’d hit him that hard. He was out cold. Then I drove him out to the lake and left his car there and threw the fire poker away. I thought it had gone into the lake but it didn’t.”
“No, it didn’t. The police found it quickly. And I remember seeing that blue button near the scene and thought of the day after when I’d seen you at the café. Your button was missing. I knew you had to have been at the scene. When you came into the café you were seated in the private booth so we didn’t notice when you slipped away for your little meeting with Chuck at your store. Katie thought you were still seated there the whole time because she saw your papers spread out on the table and your briefcase at the side. She didn’t actually see you. Then you returned to the booth as if nothing happened. Oh, Ned. What a terrible thing to have done.”
“I know,” he sighed deeply. “I didn’t know he was knocked dead. I swear. When I found out I’d killed him, I tried to get the body out. You know I used to lift weights heavier than him back in the day. I still do at times.”
“I know, Ned. I know.”
Dana turned around to see Detective Troy and a few cops there. They’d heard everything.
Detective Troy had a look of disappointment on his face. Did he blame Dana for getting involved and convincing him that Ned was innocent? Still, he couldn’t blame her now, could he? After all, she set the record straight, didn’t she?
“So I was right the first time,” Troy said. “Book him.” He gave the order to the cop beside him who promptly read Ned his rights before cuffing him.
“Dana I don’t know if I should thank you or scold you.”
She grinned slightly. She was still in shock over realizing that Ned was the killer after all. “Neither do I, Detective.”